Aguirre to NBI: Probe sabotage on drug war

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has tapped the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into the possibility that the killing of male teenagers is meant to sabotage the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre 2nd said he ordered the NBI to explore this angle in its ongoing investigation of the killing of Kian Loyd de los Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman.

“We have to determine if there are other motives [beyond the]killing of these teenagers because we can see a trend that is targeting teenagers. This has not happened before when the war on drugs started,” Aguirre noted.

The DoJ chief echoed President Rodrigo Duterte that there seems to be a deliberate effort to sabotage his administration’s crackdown on illegal drugs.

“This [sabotage]appears to me as an effort to ultimately destroy our police force and of course the President,” Aguirre said.

Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) chief Persida Rueda-Acosta, who is providing legal assistance to the parents of the three slain teenagers, is also looking into that possibility.

“It’s obvious already that there’s an agenda in these killings. They are sacrificing teenagers to pursue their agenda. How could they stand doing that?” the PAO chief said.

She added that they will be filing a criminal complaint for murder at the DoJ in the killing of Arnaiz, 19, and de Guzman, 14 this coming week.

“This will be a joint case. The complaint will be filed as a double murder case,” Acosta said.

She added that the case will be based on a memorandum of Police Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna identifying Police Officer 1 Jeffrey Perez and PO1 Ricky Arquilita as the policemen involved in Carl’s killing.

Acosta disclosed that they were able to find a key witness to support the criminal charges.

“This witness gave us very important information on what really happened to Carl and [de Guzman]. So together with the testimonial evidence and physicial evidence like forensic tests, we find basis to pursue murder and torture charges against these policemen,” she said.